Category: Gospel

  • Time is slipping by

    Make the most of it

    Time seems to be flying. It’s already nearing the end of August, and the schools will be starting up in a few weeks. The robins and other birds are beginning to flock up in preparation for their migration south. 

    The fruit trees are heavily laden, and you can see windfall apples wherever there are apple trees. The yellow jackets are getting more aggressive and swarm around anything resembling food, making barbeques and picnics a bit more challenging. We are starting to see the early turning leaves on some trees.

    School supplies are back in stores now. The giant Halloween store that pops up yearly in a vacant spot has already opened. Good luck if you need to replace a piece of summer clothing. Heavy jackets, anyone?

    Time passes. It is a simple fact of this life. Sometimes, it seems to race by, and other times, it creeps ever so slowly, but the clock just keeps ticking. I saw a photo of a child I saw recently as a newborn; she’s a teenager! How is that even possible?

    Time is a priceless commodity, which means that over the years, I have squandered great wealth by unwise use of it.

    We are given very few days to live this life, and none know how many except the Lord (and He isn’t telling).

    Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. James 4:13-14 ESV

    Remember how short my time is! For what vanity you have created all the children of man! What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Psalm 89:47-48 ESV

    All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. 1 Peter 1:24-25 ESV

    God has given us days to work and days to rest. He gives us seasons of great energy in our youth and seasons of less ability in our more senior years.

    The Lord has given us two incredible gifts. He has given us life itself and the opportunity to glorify God in that life.

    Make the most of it.

    Kevin

    Right belief or right living?

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    The Standoff – who wins?

    Jesus tells us to count the cost

    Times change but God doesn’t

    SUMMARY

    Watching the seasons turn reminded me how fast our days actually go, and how easy it is to waste time we can’t get back. Life is short and none of us know how many days we have — so let’s not waste the ones we’ve been given.

    TAKEAWAY

    The turning season — birds flocking, fading summer clothes, early leaves — is a vivid picture of how fast time moves

    Scripture (James 4:13-14, Psalm 89:47-48, 1 Peter 1:24-25) describes our life as a mist and grass that withers, while God’s word alone endures forever

    God has given us two gifts — life itself and the opportunity to glorify Him in it — so the call is to steward the days we’re given

  • Proximity Doesn’t Produce a Profession

    Do you really know Jesus?

    An empty church pew with sunlight streaming on it reenforcing the theme of proximity, closeness

    I was thinking about Pat, a late friend from “the cowboy church,” recently. She attended and served at churches her entire life but later in life realized she didn’t know Jesus. She had thought that attending church and doing “Christian” things made her a Christian. After truly becoming a believer, she was an unstoppable force, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but with a zeal matched by very few.

    I have met so many people like that, faithful in church, but without Jesus. What a tragedy it will be when He says to them, “Depart from me; I never knew you.” 

    I’m not judging them; I’m going by the fact that they told me of their conversion experiences later. It’s not for me to judge someone’s salvation; only God himself can do that. 

    Being near the holy doesn’t make you holy, or, as a nicely alliterated sermon title, “Proximity doesn’t always produce a profession.” That shouldn’t surprise us. Judas Iscariot walked with Jesus for three years and didn’t believe. Jesus worked signs and wonders, and people didn’t come to him.

    When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. John 6:60-66 ESV

    I have met people who have told me, “I tried Christianity, but it didn’t work for me.” Of course it didn’t. “Christianity” has no power to change anyone. We must be changed by the Holy Spirit, be born again and be in the process of being made Christ. God has the power, not some vague definition of Christianity.

    The Apostle Paul warns

    For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Hebrews 6:4-8 ESV

    It’s possible to go to church, have a Christian family or family members, and receive some of God’s blessings by being in their proximity without knowing Jesus. That’s a sobering thought.

    It’s why I believe that every sermon should point to the cross explicitly or implicitly. It doesn’t have to be the key point of the message, but it’s likely in most (every?) congregations that there is someone there who doesn’t know Jesus.

    What are you trusting in? If you aren’t trusting in Jesus by faith, you need to change direction.

    May you know the Lord and be bless by Him,

    Kevin

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    SUMMARY

    I think about my late friend Pat, who served faithfully in church her whole life before realizing, late, that she’d never actually known Jesus. Her story is a reminder that proximity to church doesn’t equal salvation, and every one of us needs to ask honestly what we’re really trusting in.

    TAKEAWAY

    Being near church, Christian family, or “Christian” activity doesn’t make anyone a believer — only faith in Christ does.

    Scripture shows this is nothing new: Judas walked with Jesus for three years without believing, and many disciples turned back after a hard teaching (John 6:60-66).

    Hebrews 6:4-8 warns that tasting the blessings of God’s presence isn’t the same as bearing real fruit — the question every reader must answer is what they’re trusting in.

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